MADRID, March 19 (Reuters) - Strong sales so far this year
and a planned pick up in store openings suggest Inditex
, the world's biggest fashion retailer, is returning to
form after profit growth stalled last year for the first time
since its 2001 listing.

Shares in the Spanish group rose as much as 4.3 percent on
Wednesday after it predicted an improved performance at flagship
brand Zara, which is completing a revamp of top stores, and
proposed a 10 percent dividend increase to 2.42 euros per share.

The group also expects to benefit from recovery in its home
base Spain, which has gone through two recessions in six years,
and the further roll-out of its fast-growing online business.

Inditex, controlled by the world's third wealthiest man
Amancio Ortega, has enjoyed years of rapid growth thanks to its
fast-changing fashions and expansion into emerging markets.

But its stock has slipped back this year due to concerns of
an economic slowdown in developing countries and fewer new store
openings as the group focused on revamping flagship outlets.

Inditex, with 6,340 stores in 87 countries, said on
Wednesday sales in local currencies jumped 12 percent from Feb.
1 to March 15, after climbing 8 percent to 16.7 billion euros
($23.2 billion) in the 12 months to Jan. 31.

It also said it would lift capital spending in 2014 to 1.35
billion euros, with plans for 450-500 gross store openings,
compared with the 1.24 billion euros it spent in 2013 when it
opened a net 331 new stores.

"We are encouraged by both the sales performance in the
start of 2014 ... and management's guidance that space
contribution will return to its long-run average," Bernstein
analysts said in a research note.

Weak currencies in many markets outside the euro zone, as
well as dozens of Zara stores closed last year for up to four
months for refurbishing, hit Inditex's 2013 earnings.

Net profit rose just 1 percent to 2.4 billion euros while
core annual profit was flat at 3.9 billion euros, albeit both
were in line with analyst expectations.

The firm, which also runs brands such as mid-market Massimo
Dutti and teen label Bershka, forecast weaker currencies would
have about the same impact on earnings in 2014 as last year,
with the effect more marked in the first half than the second.

But it also predicted a benefit from refurbishments at Zara,
which accounts for almost two-thirds of the group sales but
which saw an increase of only 2 percent last financial year.

"We have big expectations for Zara in 2014," Chief Executive
Pablo Isla told analysts on a conference call, adding that the
store revamp programme had been largely completed and pointing
to flagship openings in Madrid, Hong Kong, Miami and Zurich.

Inditex began expanding and introducing a new look,
including long corridors and cubes for individual collections,
into some of its Zara flagship stores from 2012 at places like
New York's Fifth Avenue and Paris' Champs Elysee. It introduced
the new look into about 100 Zara flagships last year.

SPAIN, ONLINE

Rival clothing retailers have also been benefiting from a
pick up in sales growth as European economies recover and the
United States emerges from a bitterly cold winter.

"We are seeing recovery in southern Europe and Inditex is
quite highly exposed to southern Europe. Spain, Portugal, Greece
and Italy - all those countries are bouncing back," said Anne
Critchlow, retail analyst with Societe Generale.

Isla said sales in Spain, which account for a fifth of the
group total, rose 3 percent in the second half of last year and
he expected the positive trend to continue in 2014.

The group's Spanish sales have fallen an average 2.7 percent
on a like-for-like basis for the last five years, compared with
a 5.5 percent rise in global sales, estimate Bernstein Research.
Plummeting domestic spending in Spain has prompted the company
to quietly expand its budget Lefties brand.

The company said it had started online sales in Greece in
March and would launch in Romania in April, followed by South
Korea and Mexico later in the year, taking the total number of
e-commerce markets to 27, compared with a planned 13 for H&M.

"Online came very, very naturally to us... we believe the
growth opportunity is huge," Isla said.

Inditex and H&M were late starters online, where sales are
forecast by some analysts to eventually account for a quarter of
the fashion market. Inditex is seen as more likely to benefit
because of its higher-margin garments and centralised logistics.

Inditex said a new 130,000-square-metre distribution centre
in Guadalajara, outside Madrid, would begin operating in two
months, bringing the total number of centres to 10.

At 1205 GMT, Inditex shares were up 3.9 percent at 107.1
euros, the second-biggest rise by a European blue-chip company.
The stock trades at 24.6 times expected 2014 earnings compared
with 22.8 times for H&M and 13 times for U.S. rival Gap.